ICSH, Statistical Hydrology

Statistical methods for analysis of hydrological data has a long history and continues to be an intense research topic; such tools have proved very effective and useful in numerous applications and case studies. The effectiveness of statistical descriptions of hydrological processes may reflect the enormous complexity of the hydrological systems, which makes a purely deterministic description ineffective.

Recently the number of available tools, approaches and procedure in several statistical fields are increasing faster then before. The correct application of new and old updated methods is fundamental for hydrological applications. In literature there are more than 100 international Journals on Statistic and more than 40 Journals that accept contributions on statistical hydrology. Many Software, Routines are available in several languages (S, R, C++, Fortran, etc.) either commercial and freeware. For a single hydrological application there are many potential statistical approaches to use.

Consequently it seems necessary to try to synthesize the enormous number of information and resources presents in literature (and not only) creating a virtual common space of statistical hydrology. This space – useful to coordinate, optimize and concentrate resources – would be fundamental for:

Statisticians that would like to understand the hydrological applications,

Hydrologists that needs to use a statistical tool and would like to easily understand what is the right approach,

Statistical Hydrologists to easily be updated on recent developments on their research field.

The Statistics in Hydrology Working Group (STAHY-WG) was launched in 2007 and successfully promoted and organized several initiatives toward the above direction. During the XXV IUGG General Assembly the STAHY-WG was transformed in International Commission on Statistical Hydrology (ICSH-IAHS) in order to permanently give its contribution to the scientific community.